Anne McCaffrey (1926–2011)

In McCaffrey's Brainships universe, children who are born with an immobilizing or other severe disability are raised and educated to be the 'brains' that steer Starships. They are also assigned a "Brawn" to be their companion and assist with activities that can only be done by a person with a functional body.
Nancia's first assignment as a ship is to ferry a group of very privileged, mostly evil young people to some sort of exile due to their youthful screw-ups. This is both for punishment, show more and to keep them from further embarrassing their very prominent families. Since Nancia doesn't let on that she is sentient, she becomes engaged in an ethical dilemma when the group enter into a dangerous and illegal pact.
In addition to fascinating (though mostly unlikable) characters, the issue of Nancia's ethics and responsibility to humanity are what make this book more than your run-of-the-mill space opera. I am so intrigued by this compelling series!! show less

My memory of the original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy was that Robinton, the Masterharper of Pern, was my favorite character, carrying me through parts of the book I found less interesting. So it seemed logical to me that I would eventually read this prequel about the life of the Masterharper.

Well, whatever made Robinton my favorite character in the original books, there's absolutely no trace of it here. Like Menolly and Piemur, Robinton is an obnoxious prodigy, able to compose amazing show more music from a young age, and basically better at everything than everybody else. And that's it, that's the book! He never seems to struggle, he just is the best at everything he does. I think McCaffrey doesn't really understand excellence; she seems to think it some kind of effortless superiority. Some of the most excellent people you know work the hardest and struggle the most, but you wouldn't know it from reading a McCaffrey novel. And why does Robinton have to be the best composer, the best singer, the best player? Surely the skills required to be Masterharper are not these technical ones, but the skills of leading men and having wisdom? These are skills Robinton never demonstrates in this book. Why is he picked as Masterharper? It's not clear, he just is. How does he adjust to this new role? As boringly effortlessly as he does everything else.

On top of all that, Robinton can hear all dragons talk, which totally contradicts the depiction of Robinton in the original trilogy. Wow, he's just so so special. Actually, a lot of stuff doesn't line up; Menolly's boyfriend Sebell is aged up by a whole generation here, and Robinton's mother was a harper when the Harper Hall trilogy made clear there were no women harpers prior to Menolly. Why write a prequel if you can't make it join up right?

This book was a tedious, awful slog that made me hate a character who had been one of my favorites. I've seen it said that as the Pern series went on, McCaffrey lost sight of what made it work in the original books. For the readers, Pern was an awesome place you'd want to live, but that hadn't been true for the characters. But as it went on, that became true for the characters too. The Pern of the 1990s has had all its rough edges rounded off, and that loses what made Pern work to begin with back in the 1960s. show less

I think this was the very first Pern book I ever read. A friend let me borrow it during our required reading hour in school (maybe middle school?), and I was hooked. No wonder: the Harper Hall trilogy had a lot of features that I tended to gravitate towards.

In this first book, Menolly is a nearly 15-year-old girl living is an isolated fishing village on the planet Pern. Harper Petiron, her friend, teacher, and the one who most understood her love of music, has just died. Her parents show more grudgingly allow her to continue teaching the village's children, at least until the new Harper arrives, but they absolutely forbid her to create or sing any of her own songs, fearing that she will disgrace the village and confuse the children into thinking they're real Harper-composed songs. Although Menolly has been told her whole life that girls can't be Harpers, music is so much a part of her that she can't bear to let it go, and life at Half-Circle Sea Hold starts to become more and more unbearable.

I had forgotten that this book began with a foreword explaining the colonization of Pern and the existence of the Thread-producing Red Star. I'm almost certain that Teen Me completely dismissed it and approached several of the Pern books, including this one, as though they were fantasy, rather than sci-fi. At any rate, this was a good book for me at the time, since I was still primarily a fantasy reader and had only recently and warily started reading sci-fi.

Nostalgia rereads don't always work out well for me, but thankfully that wasn't the case here. I enjoyed Dragonsong just as much as I remembered enjoying it when I first read it. I sympathized with Menolly, who managed to come across as being stifled without being annoying about it. I could also understand Menolly's parents' perspectives, even though I didn't agree with their actions. The village's survival depended upon everyone pulling their own weight. Although Harpers were important (they didn't just entertain, they carried news and new teachings, acted as judges when necessary, and more), there had never been a female Harper that they knew of, so Menolly's focus on music seemed like a waste of time and effort to them.

The thing I was really looking forward to was the fire lizards (tiny dragons). They took a bit to show up, which is one of the reasons why I've reread Dragonsinger more than Dragonsong, but they were still just as wonderful as I remembered. I loved reading about Menolly's efforts to try to make a life for herself and her fire lizards outside the Sea Hold, but it was her reentry into civilization that really brought a smile to my face. It was lovely to see her finally get to be around people who didn't constantly dismiss her and tell her that her dreams were both worthless and actively harmful to the people around her. And her first conversations with Master Robinton! I had forgotten how charming he was.

Although this would be a pretty good starting point for Pern newbies, there were a few things that would be confusing: Brekke's situation, and the uproar surrounding Jaxom's Impression of Ruth. Menolly learned some of the background info, but further details weren't really important to her story. To newbie readers whose interest was piqued, I'd say either start from the beginning and read Dragonflight, or try the books that deal more directly with Brekke and Jaxom (I think Dragonquest and The White Dragon, respectively), keeping in mind that those are books 2 and 3 and might bring up further questions. But hey, that's the fun thing about reading a series.

Back to Dragonsong: all in all, this was a quick and enjoyable read that reminded me of what I loved about this series. It could have used more fire lizard scenes and Master Robinton appearances, but that's what Dragonsinger is for. On to the next book!

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Nearly everyone I know read and loved Pern when they were a teenager, so I thought it was about time I caught up. I do wish I'd found this book at the same time as everyone else, but I did enjoy it.

It has dragons! Except it's not fantasy, it's sci fi, because they are dragons on a colonised planet that are essential for fighting alien spores! And just when you've got your head round that, there's a Big Reveal, and you find out they are time travelling dragons! I mean, what's not to like show more about a strong female lead and time travelling dragons?

It is a bit problematic, or at least it's not a book about consent. Lessa is taken from her home and placed in mortal danger to possibly bond with the queen dragon without an explanation or any choice. And F'lar and Lessa's relationship, with its snark and power imbalance and dragon induced sex is probably not a model for the young. But Lessa is clever and powerful and changes history.

It's interesting to run the story in reverse. Our good guys are good because they stayed alert and guarded the old ways and protected Pern even after 400 years of waiting. But if there really had never been another attack from the threads, they would have been quite foolish. They are Right to have faith and stay vigilant, and are the heros because of it... but that moral does make you wonder, would it have been good to wait for 1000 years? Forever? show less